The Color of Water

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. The Black Panther Party was a Marxist-Leninist organization founded by a couple of college students in 1966. What were the primary beliefs of the Black Panther Party? What historical events led to its creation, and how did it connect to the larger Black Power movement of the 1960s?

Teaching Suggestion: James’s sense of racial dissonance stems from his diverse racial heritage, with a white Jewish mother and Black father. In the 1960s, James is intrigued by the Black Power movement—but also scared of it. An understanding of this movement will allow students to better connect to one of the core themes of the book, which concerns the experience of Growing Up With a Diverse Racial Background in America.

• The “Black Power” article on National Archives gives a sense of the scope of this movement from the 1960s and 1970s.
• The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s “The Black Panther Party: Challenging Police and Promoting Social Change” provides context about the social factors and cultural environment that led to the rise of the Black Panther party.